Hey there, folks! We’ve got several things on the docket today, so I’d better get right down to business:

1) If you were checking in to see if you’re one of the BIG winners in:
five days five ways | because every day is different

I’m afraid that you’ll have to be patient a little longer. I’m still compiling the official tally for the donations given so I can be sure that all of those folks get all of their entries counted. 

The good news is…if you somehow missed out on the chance to enter, you STILL CAN!

I will keep the giveaway open until I can get all of the details sorted out, so keep entering and giving until I tell you otherwise (I hope to have everything figured out by some time tomorrow, but we’ll see!).

2) Thrifted or Grifted Results are in!

68% said that Exhibit B was thrifted, and…

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You were right!

Top: American Eagle/GW ($3), Jacket: Jordache, NWT/GW ($3), Skirt: Target/GW ($4), Tights: DKNY, NWT/GW ($1), Belt: GW ($1) Shoes: Lower East Side/GW ($3)

TOTAL: $15 (Did you see how many pieces were there for $15??! Suh-weet!)

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Top: J. Crew Outlet ($14), Jacket: Bealls ($12), Skirt: Gap Outlet ($7), Tights: Gap ($2), Shoes: Antonio Melani ($15), Belt: Came with a skirt from F21 ($0)

TOTAL: $52

My favorite commenter this week was Maggie who said: “I’m going with outfit A as the thrifted version. Not sure if it’s the bedazzled collar on the jacket, the wonky twist at the tail of the braided belt or the overall “huh” of the skirt. The only thing that gives me pause is those shoes … awesome. So A it is. Unless it isn’t. LOVE that you do this!”

I laughed out loud when I read this comment. Maggie…gurrrl…you are sooooo right, even though you’re technically wrong.

Exhibit A was much more of a hot mess in terms of execution. I’m totally with Maggie on the “huh” of that skirt. I LOOOVE the color, and I love the shape…but…well, here’s how this week’s Thrifted or Grifted went in my head:

“Ooooooh. I could totally do something fun with that fab pink lace skirt, these DKNY tights, and my new fave pair of GW shoes. And I know I have two similar jackets. I can make this work!”

And then I went in my closet to look for an equivalent skirt for the lace one and discovered something interesting:

I own at least 20 skirts…probably more (wait, that’s not the interesting part; that’s just disturbing).

3 (THREE!) of them aren’t from Goodwill.  And 2 of those, I bought when I was 7-months-pregnant, so to say that they don’t exactly fit anymore is a bit of an understatement.

But I didn’t have time or motivation to go spend money on something I (clearly) had no need for outside of a quick photo shoot, so I rolled the top of the skirt down, which created a great deal of that “huh” factor  that Maggie noticed (the rest came from the wrinkles…yeah, ironing is done on a strictly “as-needed” basis around here, and T+G does not qualify “as needed” when it’s 3:34, and I have to get to post office by 4:00).

ALL that to say that I think Maggie nailed pretty much everything about Exhibit A, including the shoes, which seemed to give a lot of you “pause” and swayed the vote in favor of Exhibit B.

So…my shoes were too shiny awesome( FYI, since it’s hard to tell in the pics, they’re a deeeeep eggplant leather with hints of fuschia…LOVE!). to be thrifted, eh?

Well, I have a whole T + G planned out in my head that involves two pairs of very shiny shoes (one thrifted and one grifted, of course), and we’ll just see how how you do then!

Mmm Hmmm.

Okay, I said I was going to be all business, but then we got to talking about clothes and thrifting, and I got distracted.

Where was I?

Oh yes…

3) Today is:

five days five ways | 5 Things Thursday

and the theme is:

Organized Smorganized

I would love it if you would link up (or leave comments about) 5 organizing ideas (from your own projects, Pinterest inspiration, cyberspace, or anywhere else) but if you’d rather just link up 5 pieces of randomness or a different theme, I’m totally fine with that as well.

The “rules”:

  • Please link up to your specific “5 Things” post rather than your blog’s homepage, and

  • Please place the Five Things Thursday button (left sidebar) somewhere on your page or post so that others can join in the fun.

That’s it!

Happy list-making! : )

Here are a few things that help keep me organized:

1. My fridge calendar.

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I put everything from errands to events to dinner plans on here (depending on how small I write), and its helpfulness is pretty much completely linked to how diligent I am to update it (of course, I got it nice and filled up for you guys…thanks! : )).

2. The perfect-sized storage boxes for the boys’ school-books.

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It’s pretty elementary (pun intended), but we had just been stacking our books inside a knee-height cabinet, and things were getting a bit messy (especially when the lovely Princess Della discovered said knee-height cabinet).

3. My craft cubbies.

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These may not look very neat (I resisted the urge to tidy them up before I showed them to you), but each little (fiddy cent!) dollar store basket houses only one type of item, making it easy to just yank a basket out and have all of, say, my glitter at my fingertips.

4. My new-to-me ribbon-rack.IMG_9551

So…funny story: I spotted this cutie at Goodwill for $5, and figured I could paint her, buy some cheap dowel rods, and have an instant organizer for all my spools of ribbon. 

And that’s exactly what I have (this is what it looks like before paint but after I shoved about 1/2—yes, just 1/2—of my ribbon spools on there in the process of my craft room makeover last week, and I haven’t touched it since).

But…did you notice something?

The rods are a bit, um, slanted. At first, I thought it was an optical illusion. But then, my husband saw it, and said, “Hey, you know your things are crooked. Oh, I know why…it’s a gun-rack.”

A gun. rack.

Clearly, I’m not a hunter, or I would have figured that out to begin with, but I’m just imagining the horrified expressions of hardcore deer-killers everywhere if they saw such a manly piece transformed from gun rack to ribbon rack!

I’m still smiling, but then, I’m easily amused.

5. Collete, the fabric dresser.

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Okay, so you’ve already gotten to know Collette (and if you haven’t, you can click to meet her), but I am so thrilled to be able to access all of my fabric with a simple pull of a (gorgeous!) knob. Definitely worth the investment of time and (very little) money!

So…what about you guys? What organizational magic tricks have you got up your sleeves?

Linky, linky!

6 Comments

  1. I’m sure i will get there soon! Right now, things are very simple because they’re so little and they only have a couple of workbooks each, but it will get much more complicated very soon here, and the bins will be just the beginning, I’m sure.

  2. we did the bins for schoolbooks last year but now my toddler can open them so we use a filing cabinet, each child gets a drawer with labelled hanging folders according to subject.

  3. first thing i thot when i saw the fun rack – what an awesome idea for a gun rack – never thot about using it that way. we have a ton at our GW’s! now i shall be on the (drumroll please)… hunt! ( i crack myself up)

I love hearing from you guys!